Poetry is what gets lost in translation-Robert Frost

December 29, 2006

Although personal connections and networking are an universal phenomena, I think the Japanese place a stronger emphasis on this method of hiring. This week's Cultural Conundrums column by Kate Elwood looks at the concept of trust as it relates to hiring new staff. It's funny that the person who vouches for a new hire is responsible for the "trustworthy" behavior of the new recruit, but if there's a cut back or restructuring it is often impossible to find out who is responsible, since no one wants to claim responsibility (Japan has done nothing to dis spell my distaste for bureaucracy). At any rate, I am sensitive to this phenomena and am very careful about who I recommend for jobs and try to be sensitive when dealing with employers who I have been introduced to by acquaintances. At the same time I am very distrustful of institutions, they rarely show the same sensitivity in my experience. Anyway here are some of Elwood's observations:

It is often observed that Japanese people tend to prefer to find suitable people through personal contacts. While this seems to suggest that the Japanese system is based on trust, it is possible to argue that the opposite may be true. The researchers Toshio Yamagishi and Midori Yamagishi conducted a survey of 1,136 Japanese and 501 American respondents related to trust, reputation and honesty. The items included such statements as "Most people are basically honest," "People are always interested in their own welfare," "The people I trust are those with whom I have had long-lasting relationships," "Having a good reputation is most important for business," and "I am trustworthy."

The researchers found that the American respondents had much more general trust than the Japanese respondents and were more likely to believe that a person's reputation was valid and important. The Japanese respondents, on the other hand, showed a stronger preference to make use of connections.

On the basis of this discrepancy, Yamagishi and Yamagishi posit a difference between trust and assurance. They suggest that Japanese people rely on the assurance derived from committed relationships precisely because they do not have as much general trust and that this assurance is derived from reasons other than basic goodwill, for example, that it is to the personal advantage of the person who is being depended on to behave in a "trustworthy" way.

Every time a president dies the high minded platitudes of the deceased are offered as proof of their induction into the cannon of the saints. When Nixon died it was all about how he opened up China, rather than what he did to America with Watergate. The same is happening to Ford who is being hailed as a "healer" by pardoning Nixon. Here's an exception to the rule from The Stranger's Paul Constant:

The first month of Gerald Goddamned Ford’s presidency, as detailed in Barry Werth’s recent book 31 Days, turned out to be one of the biggest disasters in American history. Ford failed the one mission that mattered: not pardoning Richard Nixon. The only thing he had to do to come out of the presidency with a legacy was not pardon Richard Nixon. It took Ford a month to fuck that up and then he dared to announce that “our long national nightmare is over.”

That’s bullshit, and we’ll get to precisely why in a moment. First, it has to be said that the stench of Gerald Goddamned Ford, the Presidential Shitrag, lingers in the White House to this day. Though he opted to not nominate the odious George H. W. Bush as his vice president, choosing instead Nelson Rockefeller, Ford hired men whose names we’re still living with today: Dick Cheney replaced Donald Rumsfeld as Chief of Staff after Ford named Rumsfeld Secretary of Defense. It was Ford that gave both these men toe-holds in the Executive Branch, positions that paid off big for them and, um, for us, 25 years later.

Here is Gerald Goddamned Ford’s legacy, as Mark Updegrove’s trifle of a book Second Acts: Presidential Lives and Legacies After the White House documents: Ford was the first post-president to cash in on his celebrity. Soon after he was defeated by Jimmy Carter in 1976, Ford was making a million dollars a year in endorsements and speeches and honorary titles. He even appeared on Dynasty, for fuck’s sake. Ford once said, “I think it’s progress that the presidency has been humanized,” and it’s telling of his evil heart that to humanize the presidency meant to squeeze every single penny that he could out of the office to which he was never elected before finally succumbing to pneumonia and heart failure and practically every single ailment that God could muster.

Still, today the newspapers coo over how Gerald Goddamned Ford saved America from the “long national nightmare” of Watergate, many of them using Ted Goddamned Kennedy’s regrettable 2001 quote, from when Gerald Ford won a John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award.

“Time has a way of clarifying past events,” Teddy said, “and now we see that President Ford was right.”

This, of course, is bullshit. What Gerald Ford saved us from was a nation where Richard Nixon went to jail or committed suicide, a nation where politicians would have to face real legal consequences for their actions, a nation where politicians are responsible for the people under them, and to the people who voted for them. What Gerald Goddamned Ford gave to America is the wave of cynicism that has dominated politics and ensured wave after wave of ever-worsening Republican presidents, preying on our basest fears.

December 28, 2006

I'm not a huge crime fiction reader, but I was compelled to read Jess Walter's novel Citizen Vince after reading Nick Hornby's appraisal in Housekeeping vs. The Dirt. That being said, this novel is more than a mere crime story-it rises above that to explore larger themes of redemption, identity, as well as other aspects of the human condition. I was also drawn to the fact that the novel is set in my hometown, Spokane, Washington. It turns out that Walters is a local boy done good, he graduated the same year I did and has written several other books as well. In fact this year, he was nominated for a national Book Award with his latest novel The Zero. Anyway, Citizen Vince is like Goodfellas meets Spokane. Vince Camden is a small time hood that winds up in the Witness Protection Program and even though he has been trained as a baker and works at a donut shop, he is still involved in the business stealing credit cards and selling pot. Another hood from the east arrives and threatens Vince's way of life and he is set on the path toward redemption when he realizes that he may lose this new life that he has grown accustomed to and that allows him to start over. I don't want to elaborate too much on plot. In addition, Walters does a great job of making the characters come alive-the hookers, small time hoods, wannabes, cops, etc...all of them have believable dialogue. The novel takes place in 1980 and the Carter/Reagan election serves as a metaphor for Vince's search for redemption, which I think works. Furthermore, there are a couple of great discussions that seem to be informed by Tarantino as characters discuss whether it is possible to get half a blow job or whether or not bras are sexy. I think that this novel is begging to be made into a film-it is very cinematic, but it is also quite literary as well. I also like how he infuses the novel with the good and bad things about living in the capital of the Inland Empire(Spokane): humid-less summers, all drivers drive like old people, the lack of cabs, nature nearby, etc... It is a compulsive and entertaining read, I look forward to reading The Zero soon.

I must say that I was a bit apprehensive about seeing Edward Zwick's latest film, Blood Diamond, starring Leonardo DiCaprio. This is mainly due to Zwick's previous film, the sanctimonious The Last Samurai and it's lame ending had me rolling my eyeballs up into my head and tearing my hair out. However, the buzz was that he had finally found a balance with message and storytelling with his latest, although it is still a film of redemption taking place in an exotic country told from the white man's perspective. I have to say it is probably Dicaprio's finest performance to date-his South Afrikaner accent is spot on I have a couple of South African friends in Tokyo and will attest to its authenticity. Jennifer Connelly plays a journalist with a conscience and the love interest-this woman can do no wrong and only gets better looking as she ages. Djimon Honsou puts in another impressive performance. This film is just under three hours, but there is plenty of action throughout, in fact too much for some as the violence is on par with that of a war film like Saving Private Ryan. This film might be a tad sanctimonious, but it does draw attention to the problems of children soldiers (in which I will try to continue to learn about with Dave Eggers new novel What Is The What, which I am planning to pick up on this trip), and the problems of refugees displaced after the many wars in Africa besides the blood diamond problem where diamonds are used to finance wars.

Joan Didion is one of my favorite female American nonfiction writers, but I don't think I've read a novel of hers yet and probably should to see how it compares to her nonfiction. That being said, she is a master stylist, and last year she won the National Book Award for her memoir The Year of Magical Thinking, in which she recounts the death of her long time husband John Gregory Dunne and the near death of her only daughter Quintana. The result is a fascinating book that is at once a discussion of grief, morning, and death, as well as a celebration of an expansive marriage. It seems to me that Didion and Dunne lived a charmed life of interesting work, exotic vacations and financial reward, which is probably why the losing of one's partner makes one feel the void of a loved one all the more. It is a also a brave and truthful exposure of one woman's struggle with these life shattering events. I think one of the blurbs gets it right when it says: "I can't imagine dying without this book."

On the flight to Seattle I had the opportunity to see some entertaining films. This includes Little Miss Sunshine, which I enjoyed, but felt was a bit formulaic; a dysfunctional family comedy, where everyone learns to value diversity (see Thumbsucker for example). However, it was mostly saved by the dependable Greg Kinnear, Toni Colette, and Steve Carrell-I still found the ending a bit hard to swallow. However, I found Invincible, the unlikely story of a 30 year old walk on who made the Philadelphia Eagles professional football team, to be more uplifting. Again Greg Kinnear put in a good performance as did Mark Wahlberg. The period sets and costume were also right on the money and provided an excellent context. I also discovered a forgotten western classic, The Last Hard Men, starring Charelton Heston and James Colburn. Heston stars as a retired sheriff who represents the traditional frontier cowboy who relies on his own skill to survive and Colburn stars his villainous rival who thinks three steps ahead of the average man and is dead set on revenge. Barbara Hershey stars as Heston's daughter. I had never heard of it, but found it well-made and well-written: a forgotten classic.

The end of the year is quickly approaching, so I thought I'd point out my favorite albums of the year as a way of summarizing the new music I have been listening to. But I'd have to say that my listening tastes are decidedly chaotic and nonlinear, I usually miss the bandwagon with most bands that I have come to love. Anyway, here are my favorite albums of 2006:

1) "The Greatest" by Cat Power-I have been reluctant to join the Cat Power bandwagon but this stripped-down, bare-bones soul and old school R&B influenced album smolders with sexuality. Excuse me while I hop on the bandwagon.

2) "Everything All The Time" by Band Of Horses-I can say from the first track I knew this was going to be a band that I liked. A nontraditional sounding voice struggling to overcome dissonant guitars with lazy tempos. Good ol' indie rock.

3) "Garden Ruin" by Calexico-At first I was chagrined by Calexico's decision to throw their hat into the singer-songwriter genre by straying from their "south of the border/"spaghetti western" sound and focusing on more traditional song structures. But this album has really grown on me over time and has now become a favorite.

4) "The Life Pursuit" by Belle & Sebastian-The Scottish rockers have thrown off the chains of expectations on their last two recordings and have reinvented their sound. Funky white boy blues, mixed in with more typical sounding songs.

5) "The Believer" by Rhett Miller-I think Miller and his usual band Old 97's may be among the most under rated and under appreciated pop music acts around. This album contains more of his expertly crafted pop songs along with a couple different arrangements of older Old 97's tunes that fit in thematically with the concept of this album.

6) "Fox Confessor Brings Flood" by Neko Case-Another solid outing by the Washington state product. Although, I have to admit her forays into other genres (i.e. gospel) leave me a bit cold. I guess I'd prefer that she continue to write and sing the traditional country informed songs.

7) "At War With The Mystics" by The Flaming Lips-This album is a bit of a departure from their previous album that was one of my favorites of recent years, so I wasn't as impressed with this outing, but as always their are some great songs on the album. It is well worth checking out.

8) "First Impressions Of Earth" by The Strokes-The Strokes continue to make derivative music that appeals greatly to me, since it is cribbed from my past favorites. They may be considered passe these days, but I still dig them.

9) "The Ballad Of The Broken Seas" by Isobell Campbell and Mark Lanegan-This album is a study in contrast of vocal styles, and is a bit mellow, but has some great highlights.

10) "Putting The Days To Bed" by The Long Winters / "It's Never Been Like That" by Phoenix-I guess I choose these two bands since I haven't listened to the albums enough to choose between the two but they are both quite entertaining so far. The Long Winters are another local band that I had a an interest in ( I read an impressive interview with the lead singer in an issue of The Believer either this year or last) and it was recommended by a friend as well. Phoenix has a song on the excellent Lost In Translation soundtrack and was listed on several end of the end of the year best of lists, so I got it and have liked what I 've heard so far.

December 21, 2006

I recently wrote a post expressing my ambivalence with Christopher Hitchens. But we can both agree on the importance and impressive body of work written by George Orwell. Why Orwell Matters is not a conventional biography, although it does contain biographical elements. Hitchens has a particular ax to grind and does it in a convincing manner, he sought to rescue Orwell from those who want to deify him or who want to crucify him. This is a slim volume that is just over 200 pages, but dense with ideas and information. This means refuting the criticism of his enemies on the right, the left, feminists, and postmodernists. Along the way he also discussed his attitudes toward colonialism, England, and America. There's a particular chapter dealing with a list he had kept to identify which individuals he thought might be Stalinist sympathizers, which he gave to the British Research Information Department (which is not the gestapo or anything like that). It has been known about since 1980 where it appeared in a Bernard Crick's biography. It's not a blacklist since Orwell was not able to hire or fire anyone, nor was the Research Information Department. He admits that Orwell had some flaws, his novels aren't exactly top rate, he has a problems with women, homosexuals, and has made some anti-Semitic remarks in his day. This paints Orwell as human, and not without his flaws. However, I think Hitchens does a good job of showing why he is important; mainly because he was right about three of this centuries biggest injustices: colonialism, fascism, and Stalinism. He is also author to two of the most influential novels of the 20th century, Animal Farm and 1984. His true gift lies in nonfiction and essay writing-he was a master stylist. I found this to be an interesting and thought provoking book, but it probably isn't the best place to start if you aren't familiar with the writings and criticisms of Orwell's work, but for anyone that is aquatinted with either of these, it is a fascinating rebuttal well worth the effort.

Slate has a great slideshow with different depictions of different periods of Japanese art from the last thousand years with commentary. The book above was created by Hokusai, one of the most famous Japanese artist of all-time. Click here to find the link.